“What they all share is a political ecosystem that’s very permissive about violence towards political rivals,” Arie Perlinger, a professor of security studies at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, said of recent perpetrators of political violence.
Hoffman said that in modern history, the right has been responsible for more political attacks on people than the left.
Marshals guarding the justice’s house, called his sister, and was persuaded to call 911 and surrender to police.
He said about 40% of those who perpetrate political violence have a mental illness.
“When there is strong support in the public for political violence, that nudges people over the edge because they think they’re acting in community interest,” he said.
DENVER (AP)—Partisans have been arguing over who is to blame ever since conservative icon and activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed. Before a suspect was even named, President Donald Trump became the most well-known to do so, linking the attack to “the radical left.”.
Trying to assign immediate blame for a public act of violence to one of two political parties was a new and grim tradition in a nation that was already divided. Experts caution that the haste to attribute sometimes vague and illogical actions to political movements may intensify tensions as the country struggles with a wave of physical assaults against both Republicans and Democrats.
Robert Pape, a political scientist and director of the University of Chicago’s Chicago Project on Security and Threats, stated that what is happening right now is precisely how the spiral of violence happens.
Authorities said Friday that Tyler Robinson, 22, of Washington, Utah, had been taken into custody in connection with the shooting. He had not cast a ballot in the previous two general elections and was not a member of any party, despite being a registered voter. According to officials, Robinson has recently become more political and voiced unfavorable opinions about Kirk.
Additional preliminary proof of Robinson’s possible influences was presented. Court documents state that he etched derogatory phrases from the irony-filled realm of memes and online video games into his ammunition, such as one bullet casing that read, “Hey, fascist! Catch!”.
The FBI has created a new category for nihilistic violent extremism.
According to experts, political assassins don’t always fit neatly into partisan categories. There isn’t much evidence of political positions in some cases, such as the one involving Thomas Mathew Crooks, who shot Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last year. Crooks also looked into then-President Joe Biden as a potential target for an attack, according to the FBI.
According to Bruce Hoffman, a Georgetown University terrorism expert, the FBI has developed a new classification called Nihilistic Violent Extremism to monitor the growing number of attacks that appear to have no discernible political purpose.
According to Hoffman, “extremism is becoming a salad bowl of ideologies where you can pick whatever you want.” He also noted that the rise in lone wolf attacks indicates that violence is becoming more and more disconnected from groups with definite political objectives.
Experts emphasized that the larger political context is more significant than the attackers’ mental state. The likelihood that unstable people will commit acts of violence increases with the temperature of the environment.
Arie Perlinger, a security studies professor at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, described recent political violence perpetrators as “sharing a political ecosystem that is very permissive about violence towards political rivals.”. The demonization of political opponents results from politicians’ incentives to employ extreme language and rhetoric. “.”.
Social media is a fever swamp that fuels the danger and demonization, according to former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, who regularly interacts with the right on Fox News and other platforms.
“There was a time when we all should have continued to pray for the victim and his family,” he stated on Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Many people around America, normal people, not dangerous people, were around that time.”. They were “busy online praying for some shred of evidence that the shooter would turn out to be from the other political team,” instead. It’s not good for you. “.”.
While some demand “war,” others urge calm.
Undoubtedly, that occurred following the Kirk murder. An important Trump ally, the 31-year-old father of two young children was a symbol of the new, populist right, particularly among young conservatives. Some conservatives advocated for peace, while others, like conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and podcaster and former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, advocated for “war.”. “”.
Thursday, while speaking on the House floor, Rep. Republican Mary Miller of Illinois stated that Kirk’s passing “was not an isolated tragedy.”. It is a part of a troubling pattern of political violence in our nation, which has been fueled by the radical left and exacerbated by a corrupt media that has transformed from being phony to being downright malevolent. “”.
A number of well-known Democrats released statements calling for both parties to remain calm. Governor of California was one of them. Trump, along with other Republicans, made fun of Gavin Newsom and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose husband suffered serious injuries after a hammer-wielding assailant broke into their home in 2022.
Another Republican who advocated for lowering the temperature was House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Extremist leftists are “the problem,” according to Trump.
Trump continues to be the most well-known user of divisive rhetoric. He stated on Fox News Friday morning, just after announcing the arrest, that “the radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime.”. The dot. The issue is the left-wing radicals. “”.
Between 2022 and 2024, the Anti-Defamation League discovered that all 61 political killings in the U.S. A. were carried out by radicals on the right. That changed on the first day of 2025 when a Texas man piloting the Islamic State group’s flag drove his truck through a congested street in New Orleans, killing 14 people before being shot dead by police.
“The right has been responsible for more political attacks on people than the left in modern history,” Hoffman said. The extreme right has groups like militias, he claimed, and left-wing extremists are more likely to target property than people.
Having said that, Trump pardoned over 1,500 individuals who had been found guilty of crimes in January. 6, 2021, assault on the U. S. Capitol to reverse his defeat in the election, “there is a belief in certain quarters that, if you engage in violence, the slate can be wiped clean.”. “.”.
There is no denying that the left has also engaged in political violence. Rep. was seriously injured when a 66-year-old man who had backed leftist causes opened fire during a congressional Republican baseball practice in 2017. Steve Scalise eventually made a full recovery.
An armed man attempting to break into Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s house in 2022 was upset about a leaked decision from an impending case that would restrict abortion rights. Upon seeing U, the man retreated. A. After calling his sister, the marshals manning the justice’s residence convinced him to dial 911 and turn himself in to the authorities.
The things that can push people “over the edge.”.
Political violence perpetrators are frequently distinct from the partisans who fuel online debates, according to Pape of the University of Chicago. About 40% of people who commit acts of political violence, he claimed, suffer from a mental illness.
According to him, “people are pushed over the edge when there is strong public support for political violence because they believe they are acting in the interest of the community.”.
Trump’s biased denunciation of left-wing violence, he said, worries him because it will only exacerbate the conflict. He likened it to when some liberals called out all Trump supporters as racists.
According to Pape, “whoever is doing this, it emboldens their constituents.”. “It creates a bigger sense of defiance,” he said, in reference to the group’s reputation as being particularly violent. We are in a real tinderbox situation, so we need to persuade Trump to further restrain his side. “.”.
